The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-03-02
FICTION IN POLITICS.
How the Lie, Called History, Is Made Up
from Some Newspapers of the Period
The Tilden Letter, the Vest Case and
the Presidents Message.

ing any attention to political announce
ments unless the evidence is conclu-
sively given. The art Of correct state
ment in print about leaders and parties
has disappeared from almost every
newspaper. If politician says thing
himself in a letter or a speech that is
one thing. If in any journal, which
he can not be suspected of making his
medium, an announcement is made
concerning him, the announcement
may be accepted as certainly incorrect.
No list of current inaccuries can be
made complete. A few signal ones,
however, can be referred to.
Shortly after MI. Tilden's death, for
| instance, writer on the New York
San, A. NJ. Gibson, said that Mr.. Til
! den had mailed to President Cleveland
a copy of his (Mr. Tilden's) letter on
coast defenses, which was formally adj
dressed to Speaker Carlisle. Mr.. Glib
son said: '.Mr. Tilden read to me the
letter himself and in my presence dis
patched a copy to Mr.. Cleveland"
This was written long after the letter
had become public, and shortly subse-
quent to Mr.. Tilden's death. The in
tention was to acquit Mr.. Tilden of the
charge that had been brought against
him at the time of the publication of
the letter, to the effect that he had
taken a good deal on himself in adj
dressing Congress through the Speak
er, in advance of the Presidents mes
sage, on National subject, over the
Presidents head. Mr.. Tilden had never
met the charge. John Bigelow, Man
ton Marble and Andrew Fl. Green had
never refuted it. They were the men
of all men who would be expected to
do so, for they did much of Mr.. Til
| denis writing business for him. G. w.
Smith, Mr.. Tilden's secretary, has
never met that charge. A. NJ. Gibson
sought to meet it with an explicitness
that was unmistakable. His statement
was accepted and commented on adj
versely to MI. Cleveland by all the anti
Cleveland papers, among which was
many q paper that had been anti-Til-
den, until it could use mock respect
for Tilden as a club with which to hit
Cleveland.
The fact that the men reported to be
nearest to Mr.. Tilden never dealt with
this matter has been referred to to at
tach to Mr.. Gibson's statement this APP
pendix: Mr.. Cleveland never received
any copy of that letter from Mr.. Til
den or any one else. The first he ever
saw of it was when he opened the
morning papers and found it in them
The authority for this statement is the
President himself. He is not liar.
He is not dead. No one need wait un-
til after his death to deny that he re-
ceived it OF inquire of others than he
whether he ever received it. He is
alive. He can be asked any time.
This declaration is made without any
design of rejecting on A. NJ. Gibson s
certainty that he saw the letter mailed
to Mr.. Cleveland. 1t may have mis-
carried. The man to whom it was in
trusted for mailing may have lost it.
The only thing that is surely a fact in
the case is that Mr. Cleveland never
received that letter. He never
adopted and never has concerned him
self about the theory of having been
sighted by the fact of the letter not
having been sent to him. Small sug-
! gestions do not affect him. But he has
an opinion of that comment which has
been based on the allegation that he
did receive the letter and took no no.
tice of it.
| Another statement has been as posi-
lively made to the effect that the Presi-
dents sister, Miss r. E. Cleveland,
wrote that part of his trst message
about Mormonism. The statement
was made in a way to be offensive to
the President and the lady 1t could
not have been more positively made
had it been made by either or both OF
them. It was and is an an absolutely
truthless statement. The lady knew
nothing about that or any other part
of the message until she read it in the
papers. Intrinsically the slater ent,
true or false, was unimportant. Nor.
ally it has the character which any en-
tirely false declaration, large or small,
has. The squibs, slltrs, argumenta.
tiShs and overt or covert sneers built
up on this often-reiterated lie have moi
been few. They are multiplied con-
stantly. A quiet man in Washing.
ton and studious lady at Holland
Patent know at least two things: One.
that the statement is an untruth; two,
that those who originate it and period
ically reissue it are aware that it is an
untruth. Of that impurity Of the mind
which a lie denotes, they also have an
opinion.
| As often and as specifically as the two
declarations indicated are made appears
another to the effect that Mr.. DAME
Manning developed Grover Cleveland a.
candidate for Governor at Syracuse, il
1882, and elected him to the Office
Mr.. Manning controlled the Albany
delegation at that convention. TIL,
delegates voted against Cleveland OF
every ballot from first to last in tina
convention-one man excepted, Ruff
W. Peckham, who insisted on voting TO
him and who did it alone The clever
others voted for Slocum on every bal